1)The
Hellenic Orthodox community in Lebanon,
lists on the 3,000 Hellenes- Greeks. The Hellenic speaking regions of the
country are mainly concentrated in the capital Beirut,
and in Tripoli, at North
Lebanon.

Give us more details on the Hellenic
community of Lebanon.

Rodrigue El Khoury

The Hellenic orthodox community in lebanon lists from the 3000 hellenes living in lebanon
, is a wrong idea. The true number is about 300,000 and we are 7-8% of the
population , and the fourth bigger community in Lebanon , after sunni, shiaa , and
maronites. The number 3000 represents
those who have the “greek nationality” from the new greek state …and those who
came to Lebanon from Greece
after 1920. But those who have the
“Hellenic roots” , those who spoke greek last time , those who are named
“Roum”( in the Arabic language ) are now more than 300,000.

When the arabs occupated our land in 634 A.D , they called our land “the land of al roum” and the first arab historian “al wakidi” , from
the 8th century, ) noted that in every syrian and Lebanese town , the
arab invaders was obliged to talk with our ancestors (al-rum) , in the “greek
language” “lougha roumia”. The same as the turks after them , they called Greeks “Roum” and the greek language “Romaic”.

After 1400 years, of Arab invasions … we are
totally arabized , but we keep our name , “Roum” and we keep the greek language in the
liturgies …

And you should know that the Greek
orthodox community , and the Greek catholic community (uniates) have the same
roots … and the greek catholic community now are about 190.000 in Lebanon.
And don’t forget that many Greek philosophers and saints are from Antioch.

2) The Hellenes in Lebanon,
although they speak Arabic keep in their thoughts, that they are Greeks, and
forced to accept the Arabism. But the propaganda that made ​​by the
political parties trying to convince them that they are Orthodox Arabs or
Syrians, but not Hellenes.

What exactly happens with this issue?

Rodrigue El Khoury

We still call ourselves “Roum”. In the
old arab manuscripts the name “Roum” in our country means “Greek people” , and
the term “lougha roumia” means “greek language”. And we are here , many
centuries before the arabs. Papadopoulos , in his book , the history
of the antichian church , says : “ the majority of the Antiochian church was Greek”
(page 51).

And about the arabization , he says in the same book , “the Persecution
has been intensified since 773 ... The Calipha al-Mansur ... prevent teaching
the Greek language to children. Since that time, the Christians, especially the
Orthodox church was obliged to translate
books into Arabic… and this is what precipitated the Arabization of the Greek
people" (page 570,571).

The propaganda of the political parties
, influenced by the muslims , nowadays say to all people that they are “ arabs”
… and the Christians are from the arab tribes … which is not the truth … they
teach this wrong idea in schools (Syria) … and in Lebanon many of the people
repeat this wrong idea without any historical references , and without searching
the historical truth.

The propaganda of the maronite parties ,
say to our “orthodox youth” that we are
all Christians “Syriacs” … not Hellenes … and the “Roums” were invaders, as
“arabs” … and many members of the “Roum”population
repeat this idea without any awakeness … influenced by the strong maronite
media.

The truth is : in this land, last
time, it exists many
nations-communities. The Syriacs(maronites), the Hellenes(Roum) , and the Arabs(
muslims)…. We should accept the “plurality” of this area … because it is the
“historical true” not the “ideological one”.

3) The
Greek Orthodox Youth of Lebanon
are the descendants of the Greeks Antioch,
namely they are Greeks from the Hellenistic era. There is an effort on your
part to found a political party for the Greek Orthodox community. What
are the objectives of the party?

Rodrigue El Khoury

Only by insisting on this “plurality” we
can save our community from being absorbed. The Lebanese regime , is a
sectarian regime. We have 128 deputees , 64 must be muslims , and 64 must be
Christians . 14 deputees is the quote of
the greek orthodox community. The vice prime minister also must be a greek
orthodox.

Every community in Lebanon has its own political party,
that’s why they are strong in politics.
The maronites have their political parties (kataeb, the
Lebanese forces, the fpm, and the marada) , the Sunni community has the “future
movement” and the Islamic organizations , the Shiits have the Hezbollah and
amal , the druze have their parties …. Even the “Armenian” community(1%) of the
population is strongest in the political life and they can have their own
representatives in the parliament and the government , because they have their
own party. The Greek orthodox community (7% of the population), has 14
deputees , none of them have “a Greek orthodox” speech , no one of them come
from “a Greek orthodox” party…. The leaders the other communities name OUR representatives… that’s why , our orthodox
deputees , talk in the interests of the other communities …. To satisfy the
“maronites leaders” or the “muslim leaders” to name them another time in there
electoral regulations….

We have to organize ourselves in a
“political party” to strengthen our political presence … not only in Lebanon , but in Syria
too and in Jordan.

We have to organize ourselves in a
“political party” to save our historical identity the “Byzantine-hellenic”
identity… in this way no more absorbing to our youth in the other’s political
ideologies. That’s why , we have to learn the greek language to our youth , we have
to make conferences about this historical identity , and this year we made the
first “liturgy in the east” commemorating the fall of OUR City (Poli) the Constantinople , to keep our
historical identity alive … and in our speech we said:

“
Agia Sophia is ours”,and we made this liturgy as greetings from the greek orthodox of Antioch
and all the East , to our Ecumenical Patriarchate ... we say : " our Patriarch of
Constantinople is an ecumenical authority , any violation to his rights , is an
offensive act against all the orthodox people in the world".
And for the first time we talked in the Lebanese media about this cause and
this historical event.

4) Since
the civil war started in Syria,
thousands of Christians have been killed by Muslim mujahideen guerrillas.

Many
of them are Greek Orthodox Christians, mostly Hellene Macedonians and Hellenes
of the Byzantine period.

What is your information on this issue?

Rodrigue El Khoury

Our Greek Orthodox community in Syria
live in a dangerous situation. The Islamic fundamentalists nowadays , supported
by the western “stupid” politics , attack many old Christian monuments
especially in Homs Emesa , the town of the big greek saint “Romanos the Melodist”
… nowadays 130,000 greek orthodox are displaced from this town to the alawite
area or at Lebanon.
They attack our brothers there , and threaten them … and the
western media support these fundamentalists …without
asking the greek orthodox population of Syria if it will be better for them
to restore an “
Islamic fundamentalist regime”.

I can say , even in Syria , only , by creating a greek
Orthodox political party , we can save our presence … not to being used by the others conflicts … 13% of the Syrian population is
greek orthodox , more than 1,200,000.

By founding a
political party to this big community , you can imagine what an influence we
will have … now we used, by others … we will be more strong and we can
say : our party ,
our community will never be involved in your conflicts , we have our rights ,,,
and we are here to take it…by creating this party ,
we can make the convergence between all the communities …. And we can
defend OUR rights …

5) What
message would you like to send in greek to your brothers in Hellas?